SC TRO on 'no bio, no boto' to affect Comelec preparations for May 2016 polls

December 2, 2015 6:37 am

By Ferdinand G. Patinio

MANILA, Dec. 1 (PNA) — An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) admitted that the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court (SC) on their “No Bio, No Boto” policy will affect the commission's preparations for the May 2016 polls.

In a press briefing, Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said that with the SC order, they would have to adjust the projected number of voters per precinct since they have add some 2.5 million voters without biometrics.

The poll body official noted that the voters who will use the vote counting machine (VCM) per precinct will also increase.

“One of the potential outcome is that even the voter to VCM ratio might suddenly expand. If we are projecting 1 (VCM) is to 800 voters before ‘yung talagang mailulusot ‘yung 2.5 million at maipapasok ulit its possible na lumaki ‘yun to more than a thousand per VCM,” he said.

Asked if they can buy additional VCMs, Jimenez said that they cannot acquire another batch of machines since they already requested for a repeat order, but the option can only be used once.

“Nag repeat order na tayo and you can only have a repeat order only once. I don’t know if that’s available. Although that possibility is still being studied,” he added.

Over 90,000 VCMs will be used in next year’s elections.

With the additional number of voters, Jimenez said that queuing might be a problem on Election Day.

The country has 54 million registered voters.

Jimenez also said that the commission was ready to file its comments within 10 days after receiving the SC's TRO.

On Monday, the High Court ordered the poll body to desist from deactivating registered voters without biometrics. (PNA)